Robert Greenstein of the left-leaning CBPP despairs that the debt fight has established precedent for future dollar-for-dollar borrowing authority and spending cut swaps. Former Bush 43 economic adviser Keith Hennessey says it “establishes a pattern.” Mitch McConnell isn’t so abstract: ““What we have done… is set a new template. In the future, any President, this one [...]
So we already know what the debt-limit debate did for leaders in Washington: nothing pretty. By and large, the American people were turned off by both parties, infuriated that political squabbling might do measurable damage to the nation’s bottom line. Some politicians, of course, lost more than others. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell proved, once [...]
Now that a compromise has been reached to raise the debt limit, there is a good chance that the political climate in Washington is going to get worse. And the reason can be found on Page 49 of the bill that President Obama signed into law on Tuesday: “On January 2, 2013, for fiscal year [...]
With less than 11 hours left before the U.S. faced taking drastic action to avoid a default, the Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed legislation to raise the nation’s debt ceiling and trim federal deficits. The measure passed 74-26, mostly on Democratic support — 45 Democrats, one independent who caucuses with the Dems and 28 Republicans [...]
That’s the amount of money CNN estimates U.S. taxpayers lost through interest payments on three-month Treasury bills that commanded a higher price after the uncertainty of two weeks of debt-ceiling debate. Note: This post originally showed an estimate of $1.8 billion. CNN has since corrected its story and reported that the amount is $17 million.
Eight years after the last U.S. detainee was waterboarded, America is still debating whether it crossed the line of torture — and whether it was worth it. At the Aspen Institute’s annual Security Forum on July 30, the debate came into full view as Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick moderated a panel featuring the author of the [...]
The Senate will pass the debt deal at noon. Maybe it wasn’t such a raw deal for the Pentagon after all. Fifty-nine House Republican freshmen voted yes, as did more than half of the Tea Party Caucus. With the debt ceiling raised, the House is adjourned until Sept. 7. They’ll stay in pro-forma session to [...]
Pew came out with a new poll on Monday confirming what we all already knew: The American people think the last several weeks in Washington have been a disgrace. In fact, the words most often volunteered to the pollsters were “ridiculous,” “disgusting,” and “stupid.” The response was negative from 75% of Republicans, 72% of Democrats [...]
The tone of the past month of debt negotiations has hardly been Washington’s finest hour. In fact, the most popular words to describe the situation, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center, were “ridiculous,” “disgusting,” “stupid” and “frustrating.” A whopping 72% viewed the process negatively and only 2% had warm feelings about [...]
The press gallery in the House of Representatives is a balcony facing the great semi-circle of seats. Reporters can scrutinize the faces of politicians as they make their arguments. They can also see large digital clocks on the adjacent walls that tally up the votes and count down the seconds of legislative business. One such [...]
